Technical Field
Embodiments of the subject matter disclosed herein generally relate to methods and systems and, more particularly, to mechanisms and techniques for distributing oil on a connection.
Discussion of the Background
Gas transmission pipelines, petrochemical plants, refineries and many other industries all depend on a reciprocating compressor. Due to many factors, including but not limited to the quality of the initial specification/design, adequacy of maintenance practices and operational factors, industrial facilities can expect widely varying life cycle costs and reliability from their own installations. One such factor that affects the life cycle of the reciprocating compressor is the oil pump and its connection to the compressor's crankshaft.
FIG. 1 (which corresponds to FIG. 1 of U.S. Patent Application Publication US 2008/0169157 A1, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference) shows a compressor 10 including a casing 12. Working pistons 14 are mounted for reciprocating movement within cylinders 16. Each piston is connected to a crankshaft 18 via a connecting rod 20. Connecting rod 20 is secured around offset portion 22 of crankshaft 18. Crankshaft 18 includes counterbalance 24 for balancing the rotational irregularities in the crankshaft. The crankshaft extends through shaft seal cavity 26 of housing 12. End 28 of the crankshaft 18 may be connected to an oil pump (not shown). The oil pump is configured to pump oil to various bearings of the compressor. The oil pump is activated by the rotation of the crankshaft 18. An interface between the crankshaft 18 and a shaft of the oil pump may include a connection adapter. The connection adapter is configured to indirectly receive part of the oil pumped by the oil pump and to lubricate the connection between the oil pump and the compressor.
However, the existing connection adapter is not capable of fully spreading the oil around the connection between the oil pump and the compressor for which reason this method of lubrication is not sufficient and the connection may fail prematurely, thus bringing the entire compressor to a standstill. This outcome is undesirable for the operator of the compressor as the entire processing cycle has to be stopped for fixing the compressor. Alternatively, the compressor itself may fail if the failure of the connection is not observed in time as oil will stop being pumped to the bearings, which will result in a large increase in the temperature of the compressor and subsequent failure.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide systems and methods that improve the capabilities of the above discussed systems.